Inverse Legacy
by Cyberwolf
Summary: Thanks to an old man named Irik and his insistence on a quest, the Slayers gang's back together after ten years. But wait - where's Lina?
1. the gang's all here

            He sat on a hill, the sun's last dying rays glinting metallically off his pale lavender hair. It glinted metallically because that was what his hair was – metallic. Add to that his blue stone skin and slit-pupiled eyes, and you had a figure sure to have people noticing you when you walk into town. If they don't start screaming and running for shelter first. 

            It was for this reason he had been searching for a cure lo these past…hell, it had been so long he had to stop and think a minute if he wanted to get a semi-accurate estimate of the years. Last he checked, it was somewhere around fifteen years. And he had not aged a bit.

            The only thing that distracted him from his search for a cure had to be something major, such as particularly insistent assassins or saving the world from Dark Stars, Demon Kings, Pieces of Shaburandingo, etc. And since for the past…here it was with the needing to stop and think again – maybe ten years, he hadn't run into any of those, he had been searching non-stop for a decade.

            And was as close to finding one as Lina Inverse was to giving speeches like Amelia. And meaning them.

            Still, it had taken quite a bit of convincing from Irik to make him take a break from his cure-seeking. Who is Irik, you wonder? Well, even if you don't, you're going to read about him. Because I like writing descriptions. So there.

            Irik was an old man, tall, thin, and pale-skinned to such a degree Zelgadis suspected elvish blood, with snow-white hair that stuck up in odd clumps all over his head. He was a scholar, and spent most of his time researching various old tomes. The research was why Zelgadis had sought him out, looking to see if he had perhaps come across anything regarding his cure. He had found Irik's tower deep within a dark forest – perfectly stereotypical wise old hermit locale – and had climbed those Cepheid-damned stairs all the way to the top, only to see the old man waiting for him, calmly informing the bemused chimera that according to an obscure book of prophecy he had been reading, a dire threat was coming to destroy the world – and a small group of adventurers had to stop him. By their previous escapades with Dark Star, Rezo (and Copy) etc. Zel and his friends qualified. And now they were on their way to the place where he and the rest of the prophesied ones – Zel was really having trouble thinking of himself as a prophesied anything – would face the 'dire threat'. 

            Zelgadis, of course, wouldn't have gone if it weren't for Irik proving several times over how his study of prophecy really made him able to predict certain things - as well as the fact that Irik did hint he had some knowledge of a cure, which he would only give Zelgadis once this possibly false quest was over. Since he had been made to do other, more embarrassing things in his quest, Zel had decided to go along.

            Now, apparently, they were to meet up with the rest of his little gang. Earlier that afternoon, Irik had reined in his sorry-looking but surprisingly enduring mule (somehow it seemed entirely appropriate that Irik chose that animal as a mount) and told Zel that his friends would be showing up in the glade later, so set up camp. Zel, who had learnt over the past few days that most of what Irik said came true, did so. Camp chores now done – Irik had done his part by tending to his mule and Zelgadis's own black stallion – the chimera sat on a hill, looked at the sunset, and tried to decide how he would feel when he was faced yet again with the friends he hadn't seen for almost a decade. 

            He stood up just in time to see Irik straighten from bending over the fire and saying, quite calmly, "Ah. Here they are." 

            Amelia galloped up first, mounted on a snow-white palfrey. Her looks had matured in the years since Zel had seen her – although the fact that she was dressed in practically the same outfit that she had worn before added a sense of continuity. She came alone, without royal escort or guards or Lina.

            _Guess she parted ways too. I wonder when?_

            Amelia got off her horse, but before she could take more than three steps towards either Zel or Irik, a thundering of hooves filled the twilight air, and a horse galloped up from the exact opposite direction Amelia had come from. Mounted on the huge roan charger was a figure in dark blue armor that Zel knew very well.

            _And the figure behind him is Lin…Sylphiel?!_

            The four looked at each other. "Where's Lina?" they demanded.

            Irik, surprisingly enough, was the one who answered. "Ah, I see you've received my messengers." He looked at each of them. "Yes, yes, hmm, the prophecy is right…"

He paused, taking in the question they had asked each other. "Oh, Lina Inverse? Well, apparently ten years ago you people left her, believing her to be safe with the other two. By some incredible twist of fate, you people all picked the exact same morning to leave, and further miraculous, didn't notice each other leaving." Irik shrugged. "She's been journeying without companion since then, so don't bother asking the others how she's been. None of you really know any more than the other."

            Amelia was the first to regain her speech – which was no surprise considering how often she exercised it – and demanded, "How do you know all of this?"

            Irik gave her a passing glance. "I am Irik Sarmanad, and I study prophecy. If one studies it long enough, one develops a certain affinity to the art of divination, such as studying Shamanism gives one a feel for nature or Black Magic gives one a penchant for destruction.  And I have been studying prophecy longer than anyone alive."

*** 


	2. reunion

            Irik informed them, then, that they were on the way to the place where Lina was. It turned out that Gourry had married Sylphiel – they had no children, and had not gone on many adventures, but Irik's message had prompted them to go on this one. Zel wondered if perhaps a cure to Sylphiel's infertility was part of what Irik had promised in the message.

            Amelia, whose father had ascended to the throne five years ago, had become so caught up in bureaucracy that she jumped on the chance to go on the road again. So eager was she that she in fact acted exactly like she had ten years ago. Irik probably didn't even have to promise her anything.

            And now they were to see Lina. Zel wondered if any of the group had as many butterflies in their stomach as he did. He felt nervous – Lina wasn't one to take abandonment lightly, and apparently they all had done so on that same morning. He fought the urge to fiddle with his reins, knowing that Adir, his black stallion, had a sensitive mouth and would react badly to it.

            He'd only left because he knew that Lina would still have Amelia and Gourry to keep her company. How was he to know that Amelia left to assume her responsibilities as Seyruun's heir, or that Gourry would be going to Sylphiel that very same day? Of them all, he was most amazed that Gourry would leave, and it was obvious the blue-eyed swordsman knew it. 

            They rode, and they rode, and then they rode some more. Zel and Gourry engaged in sword-duels to test their skill – and if they were a little more fierce in the clash of blades than previously, they blamed it on stress. 

            Sylphiel helped Amelia to perfect her White magic. And Irik continued to read and make startling announcements, most of which came true. Funnily enough, neither Zel nor Gourry nor Sylphiel pestered him for whatever he had promised them to get them to come along.

            And on they rode.

*** 

            They stopped in Alephis, the large cosmopolitan capital of the kingdom Tellio. They needed to pick up supplies, rest their mounts and – although only the girls would admit this – have a night's sleep on an actual bed. Irik, who had become deeply engrossed in one of his thick tomes (it was a wonder he had managed to pack so many) hardly even seemed to notice where they were.

            Amelia and Sylphiel ran to the inn's bath, and proceeded to soak in the stone tub. Zel didn't think they'd be out anytime before supper. Gourry, not surprisingly, went to the dining room, where he began to eat everything on the inn's menu and send the chef into conniptions. 

            Zel decided to go for a walk. They'd decided to stock up on supplies the next day, but it wouldn't hurt to pick up a few weapons and such for himself now. He walked through the wide, stone-paved streets of Alephis, face safely hidden within his hood and veil, blue eyes watching the people around him. The people of Alephis strode briskly through their city's streets, mostly ignoring strangers – such as Zel – but greeting merrily any casual acquaintance they might happen by. The stores Zel passed, still busy despite the approaching evening, did a brisk business. There were worse places to be in than Alephis.

            Zel walked through the whole city, finding a blacksmith at the edge of town who gruffly promised to have throwing knives ready for him the next day; Zel also left his sword there, for a long-overdue sharpening and reshaping. He felt uneasy to be walking about unarmed except for a few hidden daggers, but he still had his magic at least. And Alephis wasn't particularly known for its criminal underground.

            He began to walk back to the inn. It was sunset by the time he was back in the inn's general vicinity, and he enjoyed seeing how the mostly white rock used in the buildings and streets reflected back the sun's red-gold light. 

            His eye was caught by a flash of red-gold, more intense than the sunset light. He whipped around, ivory cloak billowing around him, to stare at a woman across the street with fiery hair that reached down to her back. The woman turned slightly, to talk to a fruit vendor beside her, and Zel's heightened eyesight caught the glimmer of ruby-red eyes in a sun-tanned face.

            Lina.

            _Lina!_

            Coins exchanged hands, and the fire-haired woman – Lina, it was Lina, Zel was sure of it in an instant, unquestionable way – began to walk away, towards the northern end of Alephis. 

            After a frozen moment, Zel followed.

***

            He watched her go up a set of stairs to the door of an elegant townhouse, set in Alephis's swanky North End. She pressed the hand not occupied in holding a bag of fruit to a small plate on the side of the door. The door _slid_ open, not swinging like most others, and she stepped through it. 

            Zel stood around for a good ten minutes, memorizing the address and the features of the townhouse, fiddling nervously with his cape. Other residents of North End, on their way home, stared suspiciously at the cloaked man, until hard blue eyes set in a glare sent them hurrying on their way. 

            Finally, he took a deep breath, screwed up his courage, and knocked on the door.

            He heard the quick tramp of feet going down a staircase. "I'm coming!" a voice said, and Zel began to feel a little unsure. That…wasn't exactly Lina's voice.

            "Jeez, Datt, you sure took your time…the t…" her voice trailed off as the door slid open, and she caught her first glimpse of the chimera in her doorway. She stared wordlessly, ruby eyes wide and mouth opening and closing with no words coming from it.

            Zel stared back as wordlessly. The eyes and the hair seemed to scream 'Lina!' but…but…

            This woman in the doorway wasn't the fire-haired sorceress he had traveled and fought with. (in both senses of the word 'with') The red-gold hair was tied up in a high, simple ponytail – something he had never seen Lina do. Her clothing, a gray shirt and comfortable loose pajama bottoms, were also the type of wardrobe he did not associate with Lina. They seemed too…well, normal. No sword at her side, no cape to add a dramatic flair, no magical Demonsblood talismans. They were like house-clothes.

            _Duh, Zel, the woman is _in_ her house._

But, more than that, she was…well, grown. Amelia, Sylphiel and Gourry had aged normally for the past ten years; Zel had aged not at all. But if this woman was Lina, as one part of him insisted she was while another part was equally insistent that she was not, then she had somehow managed to change from looking like a fifteen-year-old girl to a slim lady in her early twenties. She had not aged normally, as had the others; neither had she stopped, as Zel had. She was taller than he remembered Lina being. And her skin, rather than the nearly translucent ivory skin tone Lina had once had, was now suntanned slightly. Her face was no longer so rounded, the sheer cuteness giving way to somewhat fae beauty as her features sharpened somewhat. And, though she wasn't, um, as developed as Amelia and Sylphiel, neither would Gourry have any pretext for calling her 'flat' anymore.

            _If this is Lina and not some look-alike. _

            "Z…Zel?"

            _Nope, it's Lina._

            "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

            _Definitely Lina._

            Zel decided he'd better say something before he got Fireballed. "I…I'm…" he trailed off, staring in even more amazement than he had at his first glimpse of Lina, as he saw who was standing behind her.


	3. unexpected company

            "Where's Zelgadis-san?" Amelia asked, looking around the half-crowded inn as she and Sylphiel joined Gourry at one of the larger dining tables. Gourry was already steadily munching his way through a platter of roast meat; Irik, not even looking up from his book, absent-mindedly picked at a salad. 

            "(gulp) Went into town for a little fresh air and I think he wanted to look for a blacksmith for his sword," Gourry told them before diving back into his supper. He didn't notice the amazed looks Amelia and Sylphiel gave him. Gourry remembered something!

            "You weren't kidding when you said peaceful living was making his memory improve," whispered Amelia. 

            "Yes…but…um…it's never quite been this good."

            Irik ignored them all. Gourry ate more. 

            "Um…guys…" They all looked up at the chimera who had just arrived.

            "Zelgadis-san!"

            "Yo, Zeligasad." 

            "…" As usual, Irik ignored them.

            "Er…Lina's here."

            There was a second of pure silence. And then Gourry spit out the mouthful of meat he had been chewing. "WHAT?!"

            Amelia and Sylphiel were staring as well. Before Zel could say anything, Lina entered the inn, and all three of them gaped. Lina had changed her pajama bottoms for dark navy-blue breeches that clung to the shape of her legs, and had also put on a belt, but aside from that she was as Zel had seen her in the townhouse – that is, quite startling to those who had known her before.

            "You guys look like you've seen a ghost or something," was her typically ungushy greeting to the group at large.   
            They continue to gape, as mute as fish.

            Zel wondered what they would do if they saw who Lina was with. He had his chance to see when _they_ entered the inn, and stood just behind Lina, scowling nervously at the group.

            He wondered if the sheer shock on his face had been as evident as the looks on Gourry, Sylphiel and Amelia. They stared, eyes round as saucers, and about the same size, at the two little boys hiding behind Lina's legs.

            They seemed young, perhaps six or seven years of age. They had red hair that glinted with highlights of gold when the light caught them, and large ruby-red eyes. They had small, pointed faces with almost elfin features, rounded and smooth with baby fat. They had slender, slight frames, and seemed short for their supposed ages. 

In short, they looked like younger male versions of Lina Inverse herself. Furthermore, they were identical to each other, right down to the color of the headbands wrapped around their fiery heads in a rather vain attempt to give the tousled hair some semblance of order and in their twin scowls at the group.

            "These are my sons," Lina said in a perfectly level, even slightly proud, tone of voice. "This is Kieros, my firstborn," she laid a hand on the boy on the right, "And this is Daylen, born two minutes after Kieros." She laid her other one on the boy on the left. 

            "…" was the mass consensus. 

            Irik finally looked up from his tome. "Ah, Lina. There you are." 

            Lina's response, surprisingly, was to roll her eyes. "Uncle Irik."

            Zel was seriously considering facevaulting. Were surprising revelations about Lina going to start popping up all the time?


	4. leavetakings

            As it turned out, Irik was related to Lina rather distantly on her mother's side, but due to his being nearby during Lina's youth, and his role as one of her first teachers, she called him 'uncle'.  

            In no time at all, Irik convinced Lina to come along for the ride. She planned to leave her twins with someone she called 'your aunt Datt' but…

            "Moooo-ooom!" whined the twins in unison.

            Lina sighed, very softly, and knelt down to face the boys at their eye-level. "Kier, Day, it's not just one of the field-trips I take you on, it's a quest…and knowing Uncle Irik, it will be a rather dangerous one…"

            Zel, who was quite unashamedly hidden in the shadows and using his enhanced senses to eavesdrop on this new, maternal Lina, couldn't hide a smirk. 'Field-trips, huh? Sounds like little-dramattas-training to me…'

            "That's why we want to go!" said one indignantly. Zel could not tell whether it was Kieros or Daylen – he'd been watching the two boys closely ever since he'd met them, still trying to get over the fact that Lina had had _children, _and the fact that the children looked like mini-versions of her, and he had observed that Kieros and Daylen truly were identical – they even had similar scars on the back of their hands.

            "Yeah, you tell us all these neat stories of what you did on your quests before," piped in the other. "We wanna see! We wanna see!"

            The first said, "It's so boring just staying in Alephis all the time."

            "Bored is better than dead," Lina said, frowning. Zel smirked again. Lina, showing signs of prudence? 

            "But you said that 'he who risks nothing gains nothing,'" countered one of the twins. 

            "We're Inverses!" insisted the other proudly. "We can handle a quest! Besides, mommy, you'll be there."

            "And you know that I'll Dragonslave a town for you if I need to…" Lina sighed. "But, boys, I won't be able to keep an eye on you all the time…no, you can't go."

            "Mooooooo-ooom!"

            "Stop whining."

            "But mooooo-oooooom…."

            "I said no, and I meant no. You'll have fun with Aunt Datt, I promise. And I'll start your sword-lessons next time we meet. How's that for a deal?" 

            "We'd rather go with you," was the sulky reply in stereo.

            "Well, you can't. And that _is_ final."

***

            Two days later, Lina met up with her former traveling companions in the courtyard of the inn. Zel had, under orders from Irik, procured the sorceress a mount, and Lina deftly loaded it with a single saddlebag and then swung herself into the saddle. The mare Zel had got was restless, and it showed it, curveting agitatedly as Lina mounted. Zel kicked Adir's sides, moving forward to help calm the horse, but found it was unnecessary as Lina soothed the bay underneath her. 

            Lina was dressed in something very similar to what she wore in earlier, adventuring days – although she had mostly done away with the armor. Her black cape was fastened to each shoulder by a brooch. A Demonsblood talisman was set in each silver brooch; the other two were set in black bracers on her wrists. She wore no gloves, unlike before – and aside from the brooches and bracers, no jewelry either. Her red tunic and breeches, as well as her boots and sleeveless yellow top were the same style – though not the same clothes, Zel was sure, since Lina had grown in height and – cough – other areas. Her hair was up in the same high ponytail it had been in that night Zel had found her, bangs held back by a black headband, and the short sword Lina had _always_ had at her side was strapped onto her belt. The dichotomy between how the outfit was similar – but not identical – to what Lina had used to wear, and how Lina before and Lina now were similar but not the same as well, suggested itself very strongly to Zelgadis.

            As they rode past Alephis's city gates, Lina turned around in her saddle, watching Alephis recede in size as their horses cantered away. When they rounded a curve in the road, losing sight of the city, she faced front again with a sigh.

            Her companions watched covertly, unused to this Lina Inverse, who had something – some_one_ – to leave behind instead of being a free-spirited wanderer. Zel felt a little pang of guilt. He hadn't been the one to convince Lina to come along – that had been Irik – but he had been the one to find her. If he hadn't, would Lina still be there, happy in that life she had built for herself – happy with her sons?


	5. just like her

            Three day's journeying found the little group stopping for the night beside a small but rather deep pond, just a few meters off the road. Gourry, who aside from his quintessential Hikari no Ken also brought along a longbow, managed to shoot a deer, and thus they ate well that night. Lina and Zel also used small spells to smoke the meat and render it fit to be carried along on the journey. Gourry, Zel, Amelia and Sylphiel sat around the fire, talking quietly. Lina was some distance away, head bent with her uncle's as they both looked at one of the thick tomes Irik had brought with him. Of course, their topic of conversation was the new Lina Inverse.

            "She's changed a lot," Zel muttered into his steaming cup of tea. Boiled with a handy-dandy mini-Flare Arrow, natch.

            "I'll say. Now she's not so flat anymore," Gourry said, chewing on his supper. For once, he was wise enough – or maybe it was the fact his mouth was full – not to say it loud enough to attract the Wrath of Lina. However, his wife gave him a rather cold glare. Which Gourry, being Gourry, did not notice.

            "I can't believe she'd settled down in one place for so long. Let alone in someplace as calm and non-chaotic as Alephis," mused Amelia. "With children!"

            Ah, now they had come to the crux of the matter, the one change that the Slayers had most trouble wrapping their minds around. The concept of Lina as a mother. 

            "I wonder who the father is," Sylphiel said, voicing for the first time the question they all had. "You certainly can't see any hints of whoever Lina had children with from looking at the boys." 

            "Zelgadis-san," Amelia asked, "Did you see anyone else in Lina's townhouse when you went there?" 

            Zel shook his head. "No. I was only in the sitting room, but I didn't notice anyone in the house except for Lina, Kieros and Daylen. She hasn't mentioned anyone as a, um, partner…" 

            "Yes, didn't she say she'd be leaving them with an aunt or something?" Amelia put in, swallowing the last piece of bread on her plate. 

            "Still, they must have had a father," Sylphiel said practically. "And Lina-san doesn't seem like the type to casually have kids with a stranger. I think whoever the father is, Lina-san must have been very close to him…" 

            Zel absently sipped his tea, trying to picture Lina loving someone enough to have twins with him. It was hard. Not that Lina was a very cold person, or hard to love – she'd obviously really cared about her traveling companions, despite her propensity to blow them up. And he wasn't reaching at all if he'd said that Lina could charm anyone if she put her mind to it. But never had Lina shown…_romantic_ interest. 

            "Maybe the guy had lots of money," offered Gourry. 

            "Gourry-san!" Amelia cried out in dismay. "What a horrible thing to say!" 

            "Lina'd marry a rich guy," Gourry insisted. "If he was rich enough."

            Zel had to chuckle a little. "Yes, but don't her plans usually involve divorcing him before he has time to eat the wedding cake? Certainly not kids." 

            "Well, she is awful greedy…" 

            "FIREBALL!" And as in days of yore, Gourry's insulting of Lina Inverse was promptly replied to with offensive magic being applied to his poor battered self. The difference was that it hadn't been Lina who'd done it. 

            The party bolted to their feet. Zel drew his sword, the steely rasp of blade against scabbard loud against the suddenly quiet night. Sylphiel hurried to her husband's side. 

            Lina, as well as Irik, looked up sharply from the book they had been poring over. Unlike the others, however, the look in her eyes was less surprise and wariness than sheer exasperation. 

            She pointed her hand at one point of the forested brush near their campsite. Magic glowed briefly, and then a dark blur shot out from the brush towards Lina's outstretched hand, slowing to hover before the sorceress. 

             Zel lowered his sword, Sylphiel stopped her healing, and Amelia just stared at the two boys now hovering in the air before their exasperated mother. 

            "Who cast the Fireball?" she asked, hands on hips. Since her sons were hovering in the air, she could look straight ahead and look them in the eye. Staring at them as she was, she didn't quite notice how her companions goggled at the question. 

            'Who cast the…does she frigging mean to say that six-year-old children have the capability to spellcast?' was the thought of Amelia, Zel and Sylphiel – in slightly different terms, of course.

            'Wow, they're really exactly like Lina!' was Gourry's thought.

            One of the boys raised his hand. "I did, mommy," he confessed lowly. 

            "Daylen!"

            The other, apparently determined not to be outdone, added, "I was casting a Flare Bit but then you stopped it." 

            "Kieros!" 

            Irik, still beside Lina, chuckled. "Yes, they're most definitely _your_ sons, Lina." 

            "And for what possible reason would you be casting Fireball and Flare Bit when you are not supposed to cast Black Magic unless I'm with you or you're in danger?" 

            "He called you greedy, mommy!" cried one twin in indignation. 

            "He inculted you!" said the other, eyes sparking in filial fury. 

            Lina glanced back at the smoking form of Gourry, still lying full-length on the ground. "So you decided to avenge my honor for me. By the way, that's insulted, not inculted, Day." She sighed. "You shouldn't be doing this, _tesh_. For the first place, when people insult me, I can handle it myself. Secondly, this is Gourry. Remember what I told you about him? He's really too stupid to know any better, so you have to cut him some leeway when dealing with him." 

            "What's leeway?" asked one of her sons curiously.

            "…just don't hurt him when he does it. He's too simple-minded to really be malicious. Okay?" 

            "Yes mommy," the two said in unison.

            "Now that we're done with that…why are you two here? Wait," she said, "I know why. Okay, then – whose bright idea was it to follow me? And how did you do it?"

            "We sort of came up with the idea at the same time," they said in unison again, giving credence to their claim of simultaneous thinking. "And then we used Raywing to catch up with you." 

            "Raywing? They know Raywing?" the startled words burst out of Amelia before she could stop them. The three redheads looked at her, and Lina answered, "Yes, and don't blame me – the twins broke into my study and 'borrowed' a bunch of spellbooks." 

            Irik broke into the conversation then. "Be that as it may, I think it's been established that Kieros and Daylen are here, that they don't take to being separated from their mother, and that they probably will follow her again. Won't you, boys?" he asked, and the twins inside the bubble nodded enthusiastically. "Besides, as it would take us some time to bring them back to Alephis, I propose we bring them along. I don't think we'll run into any extravagant danger until the final part of this. And if we do, these Inverse twins will be less likely than most children to fall prey, eh?" 


End file.
